Surfing Through Storms
by zoetat
Summary: When Percy moves to Santa Monica he thinks it will be just like the seven other places he's lived. But of course, he's wrong. In Santa Monica... He has to worry about girls... All human
1. Chapter 1

Percy's POV

It wasn't that I was nervous to go to another school. I had done it seven other times. It didn't even phase me now. Santa Monica High School was just another high school I would be at until my mom and step dad decided to up and move again. Or so I thought…

You see, my step dad Paul has this weird job where he gets moved all around. I don't even know what he does; something in construction or engineering maybe… anyways, his boss let him choose where he would relocate to. My mom and him decided for an early birthday present, I could pick. I have always loved the water, more specifically the ocean and I've always wanted to learn to surf. So I chose Santa Monica, California, a nice city right on the coast, Paul even bought a house on the beach. Sadly, we wouldn't move in until a week before my junior year so I never even got a chance to explore or meet any of the other kids my age. All I had time for was unpacking, getting ready for and touring the school.

Today was the first day and I was doing pretty well… until I hit Latin. There was this girl. Ok, I know how cheesy that sounds, but this girl is different. She had her dirty blonde hair pulled up in a loose pony tail, framing her face perfectly and accentuating her stormy, gray eyes. She was tall and athletic, wearing tan shorts and an orange t-shirt with a purple backpack slung across her shoulder that had a worn out Yankees cap strapped on to it. She was mesmerizing. And way out of my league. She took a seat in the middle row, by the windows and on the opposite side of the room from me. Nobody sat down next to her or said hi. I wondered if she was new too. I made a rash move. I picked up all my stuff and asked her if the seat was open. She looked at me. And I mean like right at me. In the eyes. And her velvety voice drifted up saying one sharp word. No. And that was it. She snapped her head back around and didn't acknowledge me after I sat. I plopped my stuff down and made a face at her, all she did was pull a book out of her bag and start reading. I searched my bag for a pencil (I found one, but I just wanted an excuse to talk to her… whoops?) "Excuse me?" I tapped her on the shoulder… "Uh… I'm sorry I don't know your name…" Her stormy eyes peeled away from her book, "My name's Annabeth and here." I took the pencil and smiled at her, "Thanks, Annabeth! What book are you reading?"

"A book," she replied and went back to reading. "Are you new here?" No reply. "That's cool. I'm not from around here, I moved here a week ago. Maybe you could show me around, or we could explore together?" That got her attention, she looked at me, smiled, laughed and shook her head, then went back to reading. "Cool! I'm going to take that as a yes then! What do you think about today after school?" Then the bell rang, she never had a chance to answer.

Our lovely teacher, Mrs. Dodds walked in. To be completely honest, she reminded me of Jabba the Hut in a tight leather jacket. She was enough to give a toddler nightmares. She seemed pretty useless though. All she did was make us go over the syllabus, then told us about the project that was going to be due at the end of the week about Roman Gods. She had already picked our partners. I just leaned back and relaxed, this made my job easier considering I didn't know anybody. She rattled off a few names like Charlie, Silena, Clarisse and Chris. Then she said Percy and Annabeth. Annabeth looked around and my heart did a little back flip in my chest. "Heyyy partner!" I smirked. She nodded and replied with, "After school, right?" I nodded, smiling like an imp. This was awesome. She gave me a disapproving look then went back to focusing on Jabba the Hut: biker edition.

And that was Latin. After the bell rang, I had lunch. I packed a lunch, already knowing that my best bet was getting a table and having whoever asked to join me, join me. A scrawny looking kid with a goatee was the one to ask. I said of course and we had a nice conversation. We even swapped numbers. I made a friend. His name was Grover and it was his first year here at Santa Monica High. He was from Long Island, New York and his parents sent him here so he could "experience new things!" While we were talking my gaze wandered across the cafeteria to where a blonde ponytail bounced with a tray full of food next to a frizzy red head who had a smile that could light up a room. "Wow… Those two must be real heartbreakers…" I thought out loud. Grover gave me _the_ weirdest expression ever. "Look over there…" I responded dreamily while pointing in their direction. He nodded still giving me a quizzical look. "Okkkaayy…" he finally said, "well there are two more minutes left of lunch so I'll see you tomorrow!"

"See ya!" I shot back. I picked up my bag and made my way to gym.

Turns out, I have no classes with the bright redhead, but gym was still fun! I wasn't picked last for soccer and I was on the dominating team. We played outside in the 90 degree humidity and I was absolutely drenched in my own sweat. _Awesome, _I thought, _just how I want to see Annabeth. _To top it off… the showers were broken. I just changed and waited for the bell to ring so I could see her.

Annabeth's POV

The boy in my Latin class. I couldn't tell if he was friendly or irritating; cocky or confident. But he _was_ attractive. His eyes were like the sea and his dark hair was styled, but shaggy, he certainly was athletic and taller than me and he was already perfectly tanned for only being here for a week. He was rather straightforward though. I didn't know if I should be scared or excited for after school.

Even though I was unsure, Rachel was definitely excited for me. At lunch she saw him and almost pulled my arm off. "A, he's looking at you! Oh my god! Look at him! Do you see him? You're not looookkkkinnnggg!" she squealed after I pointed him out. When we got to the table she elbowed me and announced, "Annabeth's got a hottieee!" I rolled my eyes along with everybody else at my table, knowing how boy crazy she was. Last year, she had thought Octavian was a 'hottieee'. Octavian is this blonde, pudgy kid that carries around beanie babies still. Like c'mon, seriously? You're 17! It's time to grow up! Rachel's credibility wasn't very high with anybody, but she was my best friend. "C'mon A, stop day dreaming about McHottie cuz we should head to Trig!"

All through Trig I anticipated after school. It was too hard to forget about it with Rachel giving me sly looks every two minutes and passing notes saying 'You better tell me everything!' I had almost chewed my nails to the quick. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Could the seconds go any slower? Do I really want them to speed up? I hated not knowing my emotions. The bell rang. I jumped out of my seat. I could hear Rachel giggling in the background.


	2. Chapter 2

_The bell rang. I jumped out of my seat. I could hear Rachel giggling in the background._

Percy's POV

I scanned the school's front yard, looking for a head of dirty blonde hair. I saw her, talking to the red head, she was ranting about some unknown topic. One of her hands on her hip, drawing attention to her confident stance, while her other moved with the conversation. I zig-zagged through the mass of students, trying to reach her. "Hey Annabeth!" She gave me a haughty sniff while the redhead looked at me then Annabeth, then back to me again. "Oh. Rachel, Percy. Percy, Rachel," It looked like she couldn't give a damn. I don't know why, but it stung. "Hi Percy! Where are you from?" Rachel said bubbly. I immediately liked her. "Everywhere!" It wasn't a complete exaggeration, I'd lived everywhere from Texas to Massachusetts, capital cities to obscurely named small towns. "That's awesome! Well I'll catch you guys later!" She waved, giving Annabeth a sly look. "She seems pretty cool!" I mentioned, after an awkward silence. "Ya, she is, she's my best friend." She answered in a tone that made me nervous to challenge her. "So… Um, what's the plan?"

"The library is about 20 minutes away so why don't we head there, they have computers, too," she turned on her heel and started, on what I assumed to be, the path to the library.

Annabeth's POV

Boys. I wish Rachel was in our class so I could have asked Gardner for a group of three. She would have known what to do in this situation. She could make it less awkward and more fun. I don't even know what to do around boys. To be completely honest, I've never even had a boyfriend before and all the friends I have are because of Rachel… What if I just focus on the project? Take charge and make a list and divide and conquer? Hopefully I won't have to talk to him too much then… But I kinda wanna talk to him too though… Boys.

We were about two minutes away from the library and I just realized that he was struggling to keep up with me. I slowed my pace and waited. "Hi," he huffed obviously winded. Resisting the urge to giggle, I gave him a smirk and broke out into a run. I peered behind my shoulder, only to see him roll his eyes, shake his head and start jogging. "I came from gym class you know!" he screamed across the sidewalk. I laughed as I reached the steps leading up to this great building. "I see how it is," he said while skidding to a stop, "I call for a rematch when we head home!" I rolled my eyes.

"Let's divide and conquer, I'll take computers and you take the books. All we have to decide is what Gods we are doing it on," I explained to him. Personally I wanted to do Minerva and Neptune.

"I'll do whatever!" he answered eagerly.

"Awesome! Do you think you could find stuff on Minerva and Neptune on the shelves?" He responded with a nod. "Cool, so let's get started?"

"Yep!" And he opened the door and held it for me to walk through, "Ladies first," he exclaimed with a wink. Not gonna lie… my icy core melted a little bit. I debated whether or not to tell Rachel. She would want to know but then she would make a bigger deal out of it then need be. Was I making it a bigger deal than it needed to be? _Dammit Annabeth, just focus on the project!_ Trying to keep my cool, I flashed him a smile and replied with a simple thanks.

Percy's POV

I freaked her out. I know I did. I shouldn't have done that. I should not have done that. I'm so done. _Just breathe, Percy, breathe. _I focused on the project. Reading. One of my favorite things. *inserts sarcastic tone here* Step one: find the mythology section, step two: don't let on that I suck at this, step three: I don't even know… Between the stress of having to read and Annabeth, everything was a giant mess in my brain, seemingly impossible to unscramble.

Mythology section. Found it. I had always found the Greek and Roman Gods interesting. How could people worship so many Gods? Or how they used them all to explain everything. It was just fascinating. I took a stack of books from the shelf and made a spot on the floor and attempted to locate facts on Minerva and Neptune.

Within five minutes I was dying. I couldn't look at the page. The letters danced around, never finding a permanent place to rest. I debated telling Annabeth about my dyslexia. Where was she anyway? I stood up and stretched my legs and searched the room for her. With no luck, I decided to take another crack at reading. I got no farther than staring and rubbing my temples. I decided to bring the books to her.

Annabeth's POV

My first thought was that he looked stressed. The next was that he looked extremely attractive. _Project, focus on the project_. "What time is it? He asked groggily.

"It's 4:30, we've been here for about two hours," He did that sleepy-boy thing where they yawn and stretch. "What have you found?" he questioned. I handed him three pages of hand written notes in response. "Holy…" he trailed off.

"How about you?" I asked, slightly embarrassed.

"Oh… umm… look, I'm really sorry you got stuck with me. I'm extremely dyslexic and nothing makes sense and it all just –" I cut him off and laughed. He blushed and wouldn't meet my eyes, his body language said that he hated me. "I understand," I attempted to explain, "I'm dyslexic, too."

"What? How?!" Obviously flustered, he struggled to make sense of it all.

"I don't know… to be completely honest I like using the computer cuz you can zoom in on a small chunk of words and hand write it… I don't understand it and try not to pretend like I do but ya… you don't need to apologize, I get you 110%"

"Wow…" he half smiled at me, obviously relieved that he wasn't alone.

We decided that the best way to get the project done was to work together. Not going to lie, I was kind of happy about it. Percy turned out to be really funny and sweet. I found out that his step dad's job was why he had lived in so many different places. He didn't mind it too much though, he said that he liked adventure and exploring and he always met people through sports. He swam. He wanted to try surfing. His favorite color was blue, and he chose to move here. His family also has a pink poodle… In return I told him that I have lived in Santa Monica my entire life, I played volleyball and I have two stepbrothers. I never thought we would have something in common, and even though it was small, it helped make us fast friends.

I yawned, we had completely lost track of time. "Holy shit!"

"What?" he seemed worried.

"It's 6:30!"

"Hmm… Do you wanna grab a bite to eat?"


End file.
